Community outreach beyond the practice is core to our ethos
Outreach
We are committed to working with young people, including from under-represented backgrounds, to help them access careers in the built environment and grow their skills. We believe it is vital to harness our knowledge to enable the next generation in building a better world.
As long-term industry partners to organisations Matt + Fiona and Open City’s Accelerate, we provide time, resources and expertise, directly working with and mentoring a diverse range of young people to empower emerging creative minds. Our involvement with Matt + Fiona, a social enterprise supporting children and young people to design and build more inclusive spaces, includes working with their young participants on the creation of projects such as a Mega Maker Lab for design experimentation and a co-designed performance space at London's Brixton House.
Objectives
Programme
Your Route Into Architecture
Working with a network of schools we’ve designed throughout the U.K., ‘Your Route Into Architecture‘ is a mentoring programme for sixth form students who have limited access to existing programmes predominately in London. Through a programme of practice visits, workshops, networking opportunities, culminating in a design thinktank, the programme prepares students with invaluable skills and knowledge to forge an architectural career.
The Bartlett Promise Scholarship
We strongly believe the best and brightest minds should be able to access education, whatever their background or financial standing. In 2020 we founded the Jestico + Whiles Bartlett Promise, which supports the full fees and subsistence costs for an architecture student from an underrepresented background over a three-year undergraduate degree course. Our scholar is female and from an ethnically diverse community. As well as this financial commitment of £75k to our scholar, we provide mentoring and use of our studio. We were the first architecture practice to fund a Bartlett Promise Scholarship. In addition to supporting our Scholar, we offer unlimited mentoring and career advice to all the Scholars on programme.
Open City Accelerate
Since 2019, we have partnered with Open City as professional design mentors on both their Architecture in Schools and Acclerate programmes, which aim to increase diversity in the profession.
Matt & Fiona
Matt + Fiona are a socially conscious architect and educator team offering unique hands-on practical education programmes for children and young adults. J+W are Matt + Fiona’s inaugural Industry Champions for social enterprise – offering financial support, time, resources and expertise to assist in their mission to inspire young people to shape and influence the spaces in which we live, work and play.
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